June 20, 2006

So, come on, there must be something to say. I mean, wake up, what are you, a corpse?

I'd like to see this on TV, preferably HDTV, widescreen, to get the full effect, but even just looking at that YouTube-ish rectangle, I'm going to give this commercial the Althouse Seal of Approval... and not just because it's cleverly creating web buzz. I approve because it's hilariously engaging and entertaining -- enough not only to prevent fast-forwarding but to inspire replaying and even conversation. And that conversation is engaging and entertaining: What the hell was that? How is that a commercial for coffee?

Yeah, go ahead and stretch your brain over this. And have a nice, stimulating cup of coffee before you start. It will help. Me, I just consumed a big, frothing cappuccino, so I can get you started on the extraction of meaning from this rich, satisfying blend of advertising brew.

We begin with a gray, nothing scene. That's the man's dream. We see the man in bed. He's sluggish, clinging to sleep. In the dream, scintillating, lively old folk arise from the sea, dancing absurdly. They sing to him: Happy mornings. You'll sleep when you are dead. They are the smell of coffee, rousing him from that sleep. You don't want to be sleeping now, in that gray limbo.You need to get up. Get the hell out of this dead place, sleep. You think we're scary and creepy? We're dead people! Do you want to stay in this dream? You're with the dead! Wake the hell up!

These strange folk on the boundary between sleep and wakefulness remind us of the choice we must make between life and death -- and the crucial role played by coffee.

UPDATE: A better clip of the ad can be seen on the official site, "Tolerate Mornings." Click on the TV.

54 comments:

Ad directors easily forget that the point of advertising is to sell stuff, not ads. I'm sure the clip will generate buzz, but it seemed a little too cutesy and pleased with itself. It broke through the clutter, all right; but I'm pretty sure it's made me much less likely to buy Folgers.

On the positive side, though, it did remind me of a great old Weird Al song:

I may as well be hyperAs long as I'm still around'Cause I'll have lots of time to be laid backWhen I'm six feet under ground

I'll be mellow when I'm deadI'll be mellow when I'm deadI'll be mellow when I'm dead

I'm so glad to see this discussion here. I saw this "commercial"(?)a few days ago and actually replayed it a couple of times just to savor the weirdness and look at detail; the guy with the melodian for example.

On one level it's a straight commercial and at quite another it's it disturbing in a way you couldn't quite put your finger on.

I agree with Ann, I'd like to look at it frame by frame on HDTV and I couldn't tell you exactly why.

I'd generally agree with Ann's analysis, but the lyric is actually "You can sleep when you are dead," which I think marrs the life/death parallels she tries to draw. The people aren't dead; they're just saying, "Get up, man. Mornings don't have to be all that bad."

. . . the choice we must make between life and death -- and the crucial role played by coffee.

What about the alternative: less caffeine and more sleep? I feel a lot more alive after adequate sleep than when I awaken tired and hit the caffeine. But I suppose it's difficult to sell sleep, except maybe for those Holiday Inn ads.

My kids thought it was very weird. I did, too, but I loved it nonetheless. Maybe it has something to do with my fondness for musicals (in fact, I watched High School Musical with my kids just yesterday), but I can't be bothered to be embarrassed by that at this point in my life.

I, too, would like to see the ad in all its glory. I'll be looking for it now when I'm fast-forwarding through commercials on the TiVO.

(Oh, too bad Folger's coffee tastes like dishwater no matter how strong you make it...)

Oh man, I was wondering why those guys kept coming into my bedroom. They kind of freaked me out at first, but I've gotten used to them, except for the melodica guy. Also, I'm pretty sure they're the ones who kept dumping the can out in the garbage when I bought Maxwell House. Watch out for that.

"Too much caffeine is not good for you, and I know it's SO easy, because, well, you know I myself was up to 63, 64 cups a day...."

The commercial is excellent and pleasing. It encapsulates everything I hate about mornings.

And it will never, ever get me to buy Folgers. But at least I am reminded, once again, yet again, of their brand.

But I wonder: how many here who enjoy commercials like this drink Folgers? The two traits seem not the associated for me (note Ann's comment refers to an espresso drink, not freeze-dried coffee crystals).

I believe the yellow people represent "Morning People", and the groggy coffee drinkers are you normal types.

I agree, that's the interpretation I made, but also that they represent that part of your super-ego which is making you get up out of bed, seemingly against your will! It's that voice that says (in my case, sometimes audibly!) "Come on, you have to get up. It's time to wake up. Get up. Get up." The message is, what ultimately causes us to tolerate that command? Coffee (or Foglers specifically, they want you to think).

"But I wonder: how many here who enjoy commercials like this drink Folgers? The two traits seem not the associated for me (note Ann's comment refers to an espresso drink, not freeze-dried coffee crystals)."

Surprise! The only coffee I have in the house is freeze-dried instant. I like to go to cafés, not fool around with beans and machines at home. Not Folger's though. This stuff.

I quit drinking pre-ground coffee years ago after reading a Wall Street Journal article about the amount of foriegn matter allowed in the coffee. At least if I grind my beans each morning I KNOW what is going into the coffee. I try not to think about it when I have coffee at a restaurant.

Oh, dear Lord! If that commercial ever came on TV, I would open fire. And I don't even own a gun!

The ending line - "Tolerate mornings" - comes waaay too late. They need to chop the commercial in half, maybe more, to be effectively irritating enough without being too irritating. As it is, it reminds me of Saturday Night Live in the past 5, 6 years or so: They beat a joke to death, then prolong the agony for a good 5+ minutes longer than they should. Same thing here. Less folks, shorter commercial, then *BAM*; it's punchy enough to be effective, the aggravation of the yellow people can be sort of held at arms length, and everyone still gets the punch line.

Marghlar: Well, if it makes you feel any better, I rarely make it into a cup of hot coffee. I normally dissolve it in a glass of cold skim milk. It's an austere breakfast that suits me. If I want something hot at home, I make tea, nearly always this.

The commercial had a shining yellow dude playing melodica. That alone would make it of my favorite commercials this year.

Has a melodica ever even appeared on US TV before? (Not to be confused with the melodeon, which is an entirely different free reed instrument. Though we do have Hohner models of each in the house right now.)

Please. Someone. Anyone. What was the name of the movie (TV show) that had the blonde, Beatle-do, zombies that look like these little rays of sunshine? Was it a Star Trek episode or some psychedelic '60s sci-fi flick? I'll be up all night and really need coffee in the morning!

The shiny, yellow people reming me of a group I saw open for David Bowie a few years ago, The Polyphonic Spree. (The band website is being redone, there is info at WikiPedia.) Imagine if your high school band and choir joined "Up With People" and then decided to make modern versions of Donovan songs. While dressed in robes.

John: I couldn't find confirmation on the web, but I think you're remembering the episode of Star Trek where a landing party beams down to find a bucolic, peaceful culture that exists to service their god called "Vol" who is a computer or something in a cave.

Vol perceives the landing party as a threat and instructs the native flower children to commit their first acts of violence by murdering the landing party (by smashing their skulls with tree branches) as they sleep.

And so long as we're on the subject of the "maniacally perky yellow face with bowl cut," I might as well mention that the "Happy Mornings" commercial reminded me of the tentative stab I took at acting and my own little, personal hell: Forcing myself to enthuse, simply because some idiot told me to.

I hated it. And it showed. And I got canned from a local production two weeks before opening because the director told me to do something bogus during rehearsal and I refused.

Anyway, those perky yellow folk must all be good actors. There's no way to fake that.

For brewed coffee, I prefer to make it myself at home. For espresso, I go to the cafe. Freshly ground Kona beans (always one more spoon than cup of water) + cold running water + a Krups coffee maker w/ a carbon filter = perfectly brewed coffee. Never fails.

Speaking as someone who hates coffee and as someone who does wake up cheerful and laughing in the morning (much to the dismay of those around me), I wanted that dark haired hunk drinking his coffee at the counter to pull an M-16 out from under that counter and blast all those yellow people.

Folks, you see cheerful yellow people; I see invaders trying to tell us how to live and what to feel. Those were marching bands of progressives!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you want to get your brand name in front of the public, this commercial says you have to go completely over-the-top, so anyone who sees it will literally grab people and say, "Watch this!"

The big brand name beers have pursued this strategy for a long time. I laugh at the ads, then buy some fussy microbrew. But I think they do work among the young -- the kind of people who don't know from good coffee or good beer, they just want the buzz.

I was at SAM's yesterday and I noticed that all the Folgers containers had really big groove things in them, which I assume is to that hands crippled by arthritis can hang on to them and twist the caps off.

Heh, Chill out. Folger's spent a ton of cash on this and it is pretty neat. Question, Anyone have any idea where this was filmed? That building next to the beach looks a lot like Manhattan Beach, CA, but the suns coming up on the wrong side. CONTEST! Free Yellow people to walk your dog for first correct answer, er, how are we going to know the correct answer? Aonther good question. Kemp

They're sunbeams. They're sunbeams! Don't you get it? They come over the ocean in the first scene. Over the housetops. They open up the flowers. They have no shadows -- unlike the guy that pulled the all-nighter. They're not ironic, they're simply joyous nature, waking up to a new day. You humans must be witless.